Duke's son being destined to be very
great in the land. It was believed that the unfortunate Duke had given
offence to the great Cardinal by expressing his mind freely about the
expense and absurdity of the whole business of the Field of the Cloth of
Gold. At any rate, he was beheaded, as I have said, for nothing. And
the people who saw it done were very angry, and cried out that it was the
work of 'the butcher's son!'

The new war was a short one, though the Earl of Surrey invaded France
again, and did some injury to that country. It ended in another treaty
of peace between the two kingdoms, and in the discovery that the Emperor
of Germany was not such a good friend to England in reality, as he
pretended to be. Neither did he keep his promise to Wolsey to make him
Pope, though the King urged him. Two Popes died in pretty quick
succession; but the foreign priests were too much for the Cardinal, and
kept him out of the post. So the Cardinal and King together found out
that the Emperor of Germany was not a man to keep faith with; broke off a
projected marriage between the King's daughter MARY, Princess of Wales,
and that sovereign; and began to consider whether it might not be well to
marry the young lady, either to Francis himself, or to his eldest son.

There now arose at Wittemberg, in Germany, the great leader of the mighty
change in England which is called The Reformation, and which set the
people free from their slavery to the priests. This was a learned
Doctor, named MARTIN LUTHER, who knew all about them, for he had been a
priest, and even a monk, himself. The preaching and writing of Wickliffe
had set a number of men thinking on this subject; and Luther, finding one
day to his great surprise, that there really was a book called the New
Testament which the priests did not allow to be read, and which contained
truths that they suppressed, began to be very vigorous against the whole
body, from the Pope downward. It happened, while he was yet only
beginning his vast work of awakening the nation, that an impudent fellow
named TETZEL, a friar of very bad character, came into his neighbourhood
selling what were called Indulgences, by wholesale, to raise money for
beautifying the great Cathedral of St. Peter's, at Rome. Whoever bought
an Indulgence of the Pope was supposed to buy himself off from the
punishment of Heaven for his offences. Luther told the people that these
Indulgences were worthless bits of p